Detroit a good choice for Pudge?

Ivan Rodriguez has found himself getting the same kind of treatment he did last year.

There's an old adage about getting married that you
may or may not have heard before. It goes something
like this: "the first time for love, the second time
for money." If we can equate marriage with baseball
free agency, this is Ivan Rodriguez's second time
around. In his first go, he came home with the big
ring. Since it is the dream of most players to win a
World Series, he has gotten that chore taken care of
in his lone season with the Marlins.

With that out of the way, now he can go for the gold,
right? What better place to get some of that in
Detroit, where the team has openly admitted it is
willing to overpay free agents in order to lure them
to a team that has not been faring well of late. OK,
that's an understatement -- they have been rotting on
the vine for a decade and fell to the vineyard floor
in 2003.

Pudge Rodriguez could help any team reach the playoffs.

Last year at this time I wrote that Rodriguez was
being unrealistic expecting a team to throw a
big-money, long-term contract at him after three
consecutive injury-filled seasons. My advice -- which
he took, by the way (although I can be persuaded that
he came to the same conclusion independently) -- was to
sign a one-year deal, prove to the world he was
healthy and then reap the benefits in the following
free agent feeding frenzy. The first part of the plan
went brilliantly. Pudge signed with the Marlins for
one season, was one of the main reasons they won the
Wildcard, had an outstanding postseason and then ...has
found himself getting the same kind of treatment he
did last year. (Oddly enough, two of the teams that
were interested in 2003 are back in the mix in 2004:
the Cubs and Orioles. Along with the Tigers, the
fourth team that continues to show interest is the
Dodgers.)